I think OP may have gotten a little heated in his post, but I agree with the message. Each one of us gets one life, so for someone, for whatever reason (other than self defense), to decide to selfishly end the life of another, it must come with a harsh punishment.

There are a lot of people who are in jail that probably shouldn’t be, or at least not as long as they are sentenced to be. However, people like murderers and rapists, who’s actions destroy lives in a ripple effect, should never be allowed to experience freedom again. How can you rob someone of their life and then expect to continue living your own normally?

I’m not quite sure how I feel about the death penalty. My emotional side thinks it’s ok; why should you get to live when you took the life of someone else? But my logical side thinks maybe the ‘eye for an eye’ approach is something we’ve evolved beyond. I think a good middle ground is to provide for these people only the very basic things necessary to keep them alive and in relatively good health. A bed, a pillow & blanket, food, water, and an hour or so outside every day. No TV, no internet, no basketball with the other inmates; just a sad, lonely, bare-minimum existence for the rest of their natural lives.

Possibly the earliest affirmation of the maxim of reciprocity, reflecting the ancient Egyptian goddess Ma'at, appears in the story of The Eloquent Peasant, which dates to the Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1650 BC)

The idea dates at least to the early Confucian times (551–479 BC) according to Rushworth Kidder, who identifies that this concept appears prominently in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and "the rest of the world's major religions".

Except it's not just murderers and rapists. Non violent crimes inmates and even people in prison not charged with crimes and awaiting their trial dates but unable to afford bail are being forced to work.

That's not who makes up the majority of these work details though. It's guys without drivers licenses that keep driving, people that got caught with a bag of weed one too many times, just regular people living regular lives that got caught up in a system designed to fuck em for the rest of their lives.

I appreciate the honesty, but I suppose this shines light on the value of human life to you. Why do you not want these people to be rehabilitated, seeing as how they will be your neighbours or coworkers again someday?

There is no room for redemption? Circumstances, type of crime, penance, psychological context, systemic oppression, acculturated attitudes, demonstrated restorative justice over time... none of it counts? All are bad and deserve the axe? Sigh. Please reconsider.

Wow, what a weird comment. Most incarcerated people are in for minor offenses like selling weed. Also, there are lots of innocent people. Yes, they are murderers and rapist in there, but not enough to justify enslaving all of them.

I agree with this but there are a lot of non-violent crimes that shouldn’t result in prison. But for those people you mention, hell yes. I say don’t even pay them. They are already a burden on society to begin with just to keep them alive. But a marijuana charge? Even cocaine, or any of those possession charges should result in rehab... with the exception of marijuana. Marijuana should just be outright legalized across the board. I don’t smoke it personally but I see benefits among my peers, especially my veteran friends with PTSD.

But I have to ask how is making them slave workers giving rehabilitation? Prison isn’t only about punishment, it is supposed to be about changing behavior. Sounds like this just produces more assholes, get treated like an asshole you will just keep acting like one.

I agree, but it’s sort of difficult to draw the line based on the severity of the crime.

What if you were involved in a terrible car accident and charged with manslaughter? You’d already be destroying yourself mentally for such an act, but on top of that you’d be expected to be a slave with a bunch of rapists and murderers.

Another question, what happens to white collar criminals? Let’s say you steal money from a pension fund and get convicted, is that severe enough to be put into slave labor with murderers/rapists?

Not calling you an asshole, but I’d like to offer some thoughtful criticism. Most of those guys are there for non violent drug charges. They’re there cause they broke a law written in the lens of Reagan’s racist ass war on drugs.

The majority of these dudes were either minor offenders, addicts, or small time dealers who were in those situations not because they’re evil people but because our society has demonized them for centuries, and set up laws designed to keep them incarcerated. We now use drugs as a rationale to keep them in the chain gang.

Take a moment to analyze the emotions you have when you look at this picture. Just think about that knee jerk reflex that prompted you to write that comment. Why do you immediately think they’re rapists and murderers? Why are they all black? Why does the US disproportionately lock up black and brown people? The angry reaction you have is just what the racist “tough on crime” establishment wants to elicit in its voter base. I don’t know what race or ethnicity you are but what if they all looked like you? Would you feel differently?

Keep in mind that we have a wildly imperfect "justice" system that highly incentivizes pleading guilty for things you didn't do if you're poor. How many innocent people are you willing to burn and torture in order to make sure the rapists get burned and tortured? This is a real question. Not hypothetical.